Forgot Your Password?

New to The Nation? Subscribe

Print subscriber? Activate your online access

.nation-small__b{fill:#fff;}

The Honeymoon Is Over Between Trump and Europe’s Far Right

Viewing an alliance with Trumpist America as a liability.

Donald Trump’s Gulf War has brought an already frayed relationship with Europe to a new tipping point. At the top of European fears: that a prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz will expose them to a new energy crisis, four years after the oil and gas tremors that followed Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. A “stagflationary shock,” in the words of EU Economy Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, could soon join the list of European grievances with Washington, after recent tussles over Greenland or the extortionate trade deals forced upon them last summer.

Look no further than the growing friction between Trump and his fellow travelers among the far-right movements in or out of power across Europe. From Germany and Italy to France and Hungary, Trump’s repeated aggressions are placing his natural allies in an unenviable political position, forcing them to level with the spillover effects caused by their big brother in the White House.

Last Sunday’s crushing defeat for Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán, who had received a ringing endorsement from the Trump administration, ought to be taken as a warning sign: Cleave too closely to the White House at your own peril. Orbán’s replacement, Péter Magyar, is far from the liberal paragon that some might make him out to be, and benefited from the economic malaise associated with the later years of Orbán’s term in office. But the incoming premier also speaks for the desire in Hungary to restore a better working relationship with the European Union after the constant bickering of the Orbán years.

In that, Magyar’s victory confirms the continental hard right’s trend toward cooperation via the European Union. A breakaway veteran of Orbán’s Fidesz party, Magyar has stated that he “hopes to........

© The Nation